Our Mission

Our mission since launch has been to support women and families taking on new expat challenges. In our first ten years, ExpatWoman.com helped 20 million women worldwide, primarily interested in living in the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East.

Connecting women worldwide

From the start, ExpatWoman.com was written by women for women, focusing on the needs and interests of women on the move, by themselves and with their families.

We have had visits to the site from every corner of the world and we want to say a huge thank you to the many thousands of women who have taken the time to connect with others by posting to the forum, sharing features, and locally, in the UAE, going along to ExpatWoman events, making newcomers feel welcome.

In the end it all comes back to those individuals, finding that they are facing an expat move, reaching out for a helping hand.

Our story so far

Founder, Jane Drury, launched the site in 2002, with 15 city/country profiles written by expat friends around the world, and a charities page. Based in Dubai and initially managing the site alone, Jane was immediately deluged with enquiries about moving to the region, and our busy forum was soon introduced. Keeping the site current was always key, and after two years the focus was narrowed to supporting the increasing number of women and families moving to the UAE.

As the site grew, so did the team, and as the team grew, so did the site! Over the last few years, we have launched many new services and dedicated sites for other countries in the Middle East, in Europe and Asia.

"Dubai is a fascinating city with visionary leadership. It has been a period of enormous growth for the region, and equally seismic change for the way we all use the web - no reflection on our journey to date would be complete without a thankful nod simply to being in the right place, at the right time." Jane Drury, Founder

Take us with you on your expat journey

As a community, expat women are so often on the move. To tap into that huge font of knowledge and enable women to help each other with insights and advice that only someone who has been there could know, is a fabulous thing, and something of which we are very proud.

Share the love

We are also proud to support an entirely different community, this being based in a clutch of hilltop villages on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal. Jane first visited the Sunrise Children's Home in 2010. An Australian-based charity, Sunrise is a truly sunny place where around 100 children live safe and happy lives. The charity also runs a huge outreach program supporting the local school and families in surrounding villages. It has been a privilege to be associated with them, and we have visited Sunrise several times over the years.

We are committed to continue our support and since 2013, Expat Web Services has pledged to donate a % of our annual profits. We have been able to help Sunrise building and move in to their own home in 2014, and it is a pleasure for us to continue to sponsor many children.

Sunrise is our passion but there are so many worthy causes and we are always happy to hear from readers about their initiatives, to spread awareness about health or charitable matters.

With over half a million different women reading the website every month, we are a force for a change and through our efforts combined, there's no limit to what we can do.